The Host

Resisted

Still slowly surfacing, acclimating myself to this new world is senses, I understood only now that I was the soul they spoke of. It was a new connotation to the word, a word that had meant many other things to my host. On every planet we took a different name. Soul. I suppose it was an apt description.
"The answers to my questions matter as much as your responsibilities to the soul."
"That's debatable."
There was a sound of movement, and her voice was a suddenly a whisper. "When will she become responsive? The sedative must be about to wear off."
"When she is ready. Leave her be. She deserves to handle the situation however she finds most comfortable."
"She is strong." The woman's tone was reassuring now. "See how well she did with the first memory, the worst memory. However she expected, she handled this."
"Why should she have to?" the man muttered, but he didn't seem to expect an answer.
The woman answered anyway. "If we're to get the information we need-" Need being your word. I would choose the term want."
"Then someone must take in the unpleasantness," she continued as if he had not interrupted. "And I think, from all I know of this one, she would accept the challenge if there had been any way to ask her. What do you call her?"
The man didn't speak for a long time. The woman waited.
"Damaris," he finally said.
"Fitting ," she said. "I don't have any official statistics, but she has to be one of the very few, if not the only one, who has wandered so far. Yes. Damaris will suit her well until she chooses a new name for herself."
_________________________
She won't recognize the new name," the Healer murmured.
A new sensation distracted me. Something pleasant, a change in the air as the Seeker stood beside me. A scent, I realized. Something different than the sterile, odorless room. Perfume, my new mind told me. Floral, lush...
"Can you hear me?" the Seeker interrupting my analysis. "Are you aware?"
"Take your time," the Healer urged in a softer voice than the one he had used before.
I did not open my eyes. I didn't want to be distracted. My mind gave me the words I needed that would convey what I couldn't say without using my words.
"Have I been placed in a damaged host in order to gain the information you need, Seeker?
"Of course not, Damaris," the man said reassuringly.
"Then why doesn't this mind function correctly?"
"The scans were perfect," the seeker said. Her words not reassuring but argumentative. Did she mean to quarrel with me? "The body was entirely healed."
"From a suicide attempt that was perilously close to succeeding." My tone was stiff, still angry. I wasn't used to anger. It was hard to contain it.
"Everything was in perfect order-"
The healer cut her off. "What is missing?" He asked.
"Clearly, you've accessed speech."
Though there was no sound, there was a change. The atmosphere, which had gone tense at my accusation, relaxed. I had a strange sensation that I was somehow receiving more than my give senses were giving me.
The seeker cleared her throat, but it was the Healer who answered.
"Ah," he said. "Don't make yourself anxious about some partial memory... difficulties. That's, well, not to be expected, exactly, but not surprising, considering."
"I don't understand your meaning."
"This host was part of the human resistance." There was a hint of excitement in the Seekers voice now.
"Those humans who were aware of us before insertion are more difficult to subdue. This one still resists."
"Am I correctly bound?" I asked, my voice distorted because it came through my teeth.
"Yes," the Healer said. "All eight hundred twenty-seven points are latched securely in the optimum positions."
_________________________
"How often does this happen?" I asked, looking at the Healer again.
"Not often," the Healer admitted. "We have so few full-grown hosts pliable. But you indicated that you preferred to begin as an adult...."
"Yes."
"Most requests are the opposite. The human life span is much shorter than you're used to."
"Im well versed in all the facts, Healer. Have you dealt with this...resistance before yourself?"
"Only once, myself."
"Tell me the facts of the case." I paused. "Please," I added, feeling a lack of courtesy in my command.
"This occurred four years ago," the Healer began. "The soul involved had requested an adult male host. The first one to be available was a human who had been living in a pocket of resistance since the early years of the occupation. The human...knew what would happen when he was caught."
"Then what happened to him?"
"He was caught, then they killed him."